Excerpt from The Making of Our Country: A History of the United States for Schools In "Our Beginnings in Europe and America," a European, background book for the sixth grade in harmony with the report of the Committee of Eight upon the Study of History in the Elementary Schools and with the newer courses of study in our best public schools, the author briefly showed how the elements of our civilization grew from simple beginnings in the Old World and how in the fullness of time they were planted in America. In the present book for Grammar Schools and Junior High Schools, after a brief recapitulation of the story of discovery and early settlement in America, he continues to trace the development of civilization in our own country and to relate and explain the more important facts, movements, and problems in the origin and growth of the United States. It is believed that this book, like the earlier one, is in keeping with the suggestions of the Committee of Eight and that it meets the requirements of the more recent courses of study. In attempting to write a new school history of the United States the author has been guided by certain convictions which are the outgrowth of an experience of many years in the class room. The first and most fundamental of these convictions is that textbook writer and teacher alike must constantly keep in mind the stage of mental development of the pupils when they select and prepare the material of instruction. It is believed, however, that almost any topic in our history can be understood by children of Junior High School age if it is described concretely in clear and simple language. Such language the author has tried to use in this book. In the choice of material many unimportant facts and names, often found in textbooks, have been omitted in order to make it possible to give more attention to the men and the events that have played a vital part in the making of our country. These men and events have been presented in logical groups rather than in chronological order, because the fundamental ideas of growth and progress can be more clearly brought home to the pupils by this method of treatment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.